New York’s distinct accent — the one that brought us Joe Pesci’s defensive “Funny how?” in “Goodfellas” and Fran Drescher’s thick “Oh, Mr. Sheffield” from the sitcom “The Nanny” — is rubbing a lot of Americans the wrong way.
Nearly 60% of Americans say they find the accent annoying, according to a new survey by Podcastle, an AI voice platform.
And it’s not just outsiders who feel that way.
A surprising 45% of New Yorkers agree that their own accent is grating.
“How we speak and how others hear us can shape everything from trust to how we connect emotionally. This survey shows just how much accents matter, not just in daily conversations but in the kind of content people enjoy and even those they find attractive,” said Podcastle.
Only 10% of Americans say they trust someone with a New York accent.
In contrast, folks with a Southern drawl were deemed 256% more trustworthy and 232% more appealing than New Yorkers, the survey found.
Michael Newman, a linguistics professor at Queens College, told Fox News that the classic NYC accent is fading — but it’s not going away anytime soon.
“Some of the features that have been traditionally associated with New York City English are diminishing,” he said. “What’s being lost is the final ‘R.’ You get in the ‘caw’ and you go to the ‘baw.’ It’s now ‘car’ and ‘bar.’”
Meanwhile, a Guide2Fluency study previously found New Yorkers’ accents aren’t just annoying to people — they’re baffling to artificial intelligence systems, too.
According to the study, AI assistants like Siri and Alexa struggled to understand New Yorkers’ “caw” and “baw,” with AI algorithms ranking the New York accent the second hardest to comprehend.
Still, some say the sound of New York is the sound of home.
“None of us as New Yorkers really want to sound like we are from somewhere else,” Newman admitted.
Read the full article here
